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Role Model
Role Model is a first season episode of House which first aired on April 12, 2006. Recap A politician is giving a speech. All of a sudden, he starts feeling unwell, struggles through the rest of his speech, which his assistant finishes, and then says he is okay. However, he continues to become disoriented and collapses down a short flight of stairs. Vogler tells House about the case, but House thinks it is food poisoning. Vogler says if it is simple, it won't take him much time. They start talking about him having to fire Cameron or Foreman. Vogler also tells House he has to give a speech in support of a drug Vogler is developing. House thinks it is merely an expensive alternative to existing drugs. However, Vogler tells House if he gives the speech, he doesn't have to fire anyone. Foreman is examining the politician, who says he has been run down. House comes in playing his Game Boy and lets the politician know he isn't interested in his case until he notices the patient's reflex isn't responding at all. He orders an MRI and a lumbar puncture. However, the tests are negative except for a small smudge in his brain on the MRI. House is wondering why Chase isn't scared of him anymore, and House tells the others he doesn't have to fire anyone. House feels the patient has either an infection or tumor and they have to do brain biopsy. Cuddy calls House into her office to tell him he can't do a brain biopsy on the patient. They go to argue the point in front of the patient. House notices the patient is stuttering. The patient agrees to the biopsy. However, the biopsy shows it is toxoplasmosis a fungal infection - the patient has AIDS. Foreman explains the diagnois to the patient, but tells him that his immune system had to be compromised, but that he must have AIDS. He denies the behaviors that would give him AIDS, but House is pushing anti-virals on him. He refuses medication. The patient only wants drugs for the toxoplasmosis, but only agrees to an AIDS test if it is done anonymously, but demands they also test him for anything else that could cause the toxoplasmosis infection. Cameron and Chase are shocked that House is giving a speech for Vogler. He agrees that he did to keep all of them. He tells them to tell the press the patient has cancer and start tests for it despite the AIDS diagnosis. The patient starts complaining of a headache, but wonders why Foreman won't believe he might not have AIDS. He says politicians don't get the benefit of the doubt. Cameron tries to thank House again, but he's not interested. She tells him that people pray to God because it means something to them, and that thanking him means something to her. He calls her a naive atheist. He thinks people pray so that God won't kill them. The AIDS test comes back positive. The patient starts on anti-virals. His T-Cell count is low, which means it is likely he will die. He says he has only had two girlfriends. House still thinks he has had homosexual sex and wonders why he is continuing to lie about it. The patient wonders why House always believes the worst about people. He prefers to think people are good and be disappointed every once in a while. House takes another blood test. The patient tries to get out of bed, but finds he cannot walk. It is clear the anti-virals are not working and he is getting worse. Cuddy asks House what he will do and why he is being so upset about having to give a speech for Vogler when the drug works. House tells the patient the medicine isn't working because he doesn't have AIDS - it was a false positive. A second test was negative, but the patient is still dying - they just don't know why. The patient's right side is losing sensation and he is losing brain function. House calls Wilson into help. House orders a full body scan because it's the only alternative, although it usually doesn't help. Wilson asks why House tested the patient twice and feels that House must have believed the patient - something House never does. They find some things in his scan, but everything he finds is explained. Vogler comes in to lord it over House about thinking it was food poisoning. He has 14 pages of notes for House's speech. House talks to Chase about ratting him out to Cuddy and Vogler. He admits it. House wonders how he can work with him. Chase tells him he has no choice. Foreman starts to test the anomalies they found. The patient wonders if he is going to be okay. House tells Wilson he is selling his soul to Vogler in the speech. The only difference in the new drug is that they added an antacid. Wilson tells him not to worry about it. Foreman tells him all the anomalies were routine. House wants to biopsy the patient's spleen despite the risk of him bleeding to death because that was the only area that showed anything. Cuddy is opposed, but agrees. House finds Cameron in the lab. He says he knows she likes him and wants to know why so that he knows what makes her tick. She thinks it is because of him trying to save her job by giving the speech. Foreman goes to the patient to seek consent for the spleen biopsy. However, the patient is having trouble breathing. Foreman realizes they can't do the biopsy with him in this condition. Foreman reports the patient is in bad shape. They think it might be hairy cell leukemia, but there is no way to test for it. However, they test for other markers and they aren't present. The patient is positive for Epstein-Barr virus, but that doesn't indicate hairy cell leukemia. House rushes to the patient's room and realizes he didn't damage his tongue in an accident, he had an epileptic seizure. He denies being on medication for seizures since he was ten, but House takes away his oxygen until he admits to taking a drug that with the Epstein-Barr virus causes an autoimmune disease. Chase points out he guessed the patient had that condition earlier - House rejected it based on the fact it is generally a childhood disease. However, the patient got the disease as a child, but it didn't manifest itself until he was under the stress of campaigning. He orders them to treat him for it despite how unlikely it might be. Over the next week, the patient starts improving. He only needs to take medication for the rest of his life. They tell him he can continue to run for office. He admits that he won't win, but says that House is wrong about always having to win. House goes to give his speech, with Vogler depending on House's reputation and integrity to sway the audience. He starts on script, but ends after one paragraph. When Vogler threatens his fellows unless he completes his speech, he goes back to the podium and just tells the audience that the new drug is good because is just the good old drug, only more expensive and under a new patent. He also says that Vogler's company merely fools around with existing drugs to make them slightly different so they will get a new patent. Cuddy and Wilson are mortified. Vogler is stunned. House leaves the stage. Cameron goes to see House. She agrees to resign so he won't have to fire her. House asks why and she says it is to protect herself. She admits she likes him despite his faults because she thought he liked to help people, but she has now realized that he does what he does because he always wants to do the right thing. She thinks that the only way she can do the right thing is to quit. Clinic Patient House thinks a patient has had a miscarriage, but she denies having had sex in a year. He tells her to start her own religion. The patient comes in with other symptoms, but House thinks it is a hickey. He thinks she is having sex without knowing it - he takes a sample to test for GHB - the date rape drug. House tells the patient she is lying - there was no positive drug test. She complains she has a rash on her posterior but House identifies it as a rug burn. House finds out that the patient wakes up exhausted and that her ex-husband lives downstairs. He figures she was sleepwalking. House does a test on her sleep and confirms the diagnosis. She is having sex in her sleep - sexsomnia. Category:Episodes